Save Article

China's Car Sales Slow Down

By

Owen Fletcher And

Norihiko Shirouzu

Updated Oct. 12, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET

BEIJING—September car sales grew moderately in China from a year earlier for General Motors Co.,
Ford Motor Co.
F 0.42%
and
Toyota Motor Corp.
, the companies said Monday, leaving it unclear whether a slowdown in the country's auto sales from earlier this year is stabilizing.

The moderate growth, boosted by government incentives on purchases of smaller cars, came amid signs that China's slowdown from extraordinary economic growth rates earlier this year could be mild.

GM's September sales rose 15% from a year earlier to 208,353 vehicles, surpassing the 200,000-a-month level for the first time, although growth continued to slow.

In August, GM's sales grew 19% from a year earlier, which was in turn slower than July's 22% growth. From January to September, GM's China sales grew 37% to a record 1.78 million vehicles, GM said.

Toyota's China sales rose 9% from a year earlier in September to around 78,200 vehicles, a spokesman said.

In August, Toyota's China sales had risen 16% from a year earlier. Toyota's January-September sales totaled around 582,000 vehicles, up 20% from a year earlier.

The Japanese auto maker "most likely" will meet its target of selling 800,000 vehicles in China for the full year, the spokesman said. Toyota, through its joint ventures with Chinese auto makers, sold about 709,000 vehicles in 2009.

Ford said its sales rose 26% in September from a year earlier to 50,970, including sales by its local joint ventures. The growth was slightly faster than the 24% China sales rise Ford posted in August. For January-September, China sales rose 40% to 419,073, Ford said.

Daimler AG's
DMLRY -1.20%
Mercedes-Benz logged much faster growth but from a smaller base, saying it surpassed its sales target for 2010 in just the first nine months of the year. Mercedes sold over 13,940 vehicles in China in September, more than double the amount of a year earlier.